The Idea of You movie review: Anne Hathaway is spectacularly good in Prime Video’s steamy romantic drama

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And why wouldn’t he be? He is, after all, face-to-face with Hathaway, one of the best to ever do it. And she makes it all look so easy; Hathaway can play versions of these brittle but brave women in her sleep. But this is a deceptively fine performance, one whose surprising emotional heft practically carries the film through patches that might have otherwise felt a tad too familiar. The Idea of You isn’t, however, your run-of-the-mill streaming romance, despite its less-than-prestigious origins. It was speculated that the source novel, written by Robinnne Lee, was inspired by Styles’ real-life dating history.

While several characters, most notably Soléne’s jealous ex-husband, allude to the striking 16-year age gap between her and Hayes, the movie never plays this as even the slightest bit creepy. This is no May December; instead, Lee claimed in an old interview that she wanted to challenge certain myths about middle-aged female sexuality in her novel. Certainly, The Idea of You is a far steamier movie that you might imagine. Barring a few exceptions, streaming has unfortunately become a venue for listless, sexless, and altogether charmless romance movies that don’t even try to hide that they’re a product of an algorithmic prompt and not human passion. These movies have about as much electricity as a clump of wet clay.

But there are several scenes in The Idea of You that could realistically challenge Luca Guadagnino’s recent film Challengers in the chemistry department. There’s genuine sexual tension in the scene where Hayes shows up unannounced at Soléne’s while her daughter is away. Crucially, she isn’t written to be some kind of simp. Nor does Soléne come across as a bored housewife caricature, or somebody who’s pretending to be younger than they really are. This makes the drama all the more enjoyable. The Idea of You is also a far more mature movie that it initially lets on; Soléne and Hayes’ courtship doesn’t coast by on shenanigans, but actual conversations. Consider the scene in which she recounts the story of how her marriage broke down — Hathaway exudes pure movie star charisma in this scene, she’s vibrant yet vulnerable, alluring yet oddly alien. It would be one thing for, say, someone less stunning to have been cast in this role. But having Hathaway play Soléne certainly makes the central relationship less strange to behold than what literally every other character in the movie perceives it as.

To them — and this includes the groupies that usually flock around Hayes and his bandmates — he might as well be dating some grandmother from a farm. But he isn’t, is he? He’s dating somebody who looks an awful lot like Academy Award winner Anne Hathaway. In its own blunt manner, the movie wants to comment on ageism, and perhaps there’s a version of this story that might have worked, let’s say differently, with Olivia Colman or Julia Roberts as Soléne. But it would be unreasonable to expect more appropriate casting; Hathaway makes the role her own, even if she doesn’t look a day over 35. Galitzine, who titillated a similar demographic recently with the film Red, White & Royal Blue, delivers a sturdier performance here. Hayes isn’t exactly a well-rounded character — we barely understand where he comes from, and why he pursues Soléne so aggressively — but the movie makes it clear that all we need to know about him is that his feelings for her are genuine.

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It also helps that Soléne has exactly one close friend, who conveniently disappears from the movie when you’d expect somebody to offer her timely, if unsolicited advice. But because Soléne chooses to keep the relationship a secret, even from Izzy, she succeeds in making it a more intimate affair; something that almost feels wrong. And these are the scenes in which The Idea of You begins to feel like a modern day fairytale — a magical adventure that completely isolates our protagonists from the harsh glare of the ‘real world’.

Directed by Michael Showalter, who has become something of a specialist in the genre following his breakout movie The Big Sick, The Idea of You is an unexpectedly adult romantic drama featuring excellent central performances that more than make up for its relatively routine writing. It treads the line between sappy melodrama and feel-good wish fulfilment with a seductive swagger.

The Idea of You
Director – Michael Showalter
Cast – Anne Hathaway, Nicholas Galitzine, Reed Scott, Ella Rubin
Rating – 4/5